Russia wins Super Series with convincing 5-2 win in final game

Russia's Andrei Sigarev tries to move around OHL defender Frankie Corrado during the Subway Super Series between Team Russia and Team OHL on Monday at the RBC Centre in Sarnia, Ont. Team Russia won 5-2 Thursday night against the WHL, to capture the series.
Tyler Kula/QMI Agency

Hockey Canada will probably be looking hard at Quebec and Ontario for scoring prowess this year.

Judging by the last two games of the Subway Super Series, goals from WHL players may be tough to come by in the upcoming World Junior Hockey Championships.

The WHL managed just two goals in two games against Russia, which claimed the series with an emphatic 5-2 win on Thursday.

And even then, one of Team WHL’s goal was a fluke.

“You have to give the Russians full credit,” said WHL head coach Don Nachbaur. “They neutralized not only us, but they neutralized the Ontario league for three goals.

“We had a smaller group of forwards involved. Our bigger guys that we had planned to be on the team got hurt, and we lost one guy last night and we lost a couple within our league before the series began. It would have been nice to have those crashers and bangers involved.”

The victory gave Russia the series with three regulation wins to the CHL’s two. The WHL won in a shootout Wednesday night in Vancouver.

“Our group had a really tough time getting to the net and getting pucks to the net,” said Nachbaur. “Give the Russians full credit, that’s a world-class team. Most of those kids you saw on that team are going to be on their World Junior team. There are 19 that they brought over that we saw in the summer series. It’s not anything that I didn’t expect. We knew it was going to be a challenging two games for our group out here in the Western Hockey League.

Naumenkov, who a night earlier knocked Edmonton Oil Kings winger Travis Ewanyk out of the lineup, opened the scoring in the first period on a long shot from the point, which fooled goaltender Laurent Brossoit.

The Oil Kings puck stopper was making his second consecutive start after shutting the Russians out the night before in Vancouver.

Sigarev extended the Russian lead before the end of the period, taking a drop pass and wiring a shot over Brossoit’s shoulder.

Sigarev was allowed to walk towards the net when defenceman Morgan Rielly, misread the play and vacated the middle of the ice.

In the second, Team WHL scored their first goal in regulation as Rattie banked a shot in off Saskatoon Blades Russian netminder Andrey Makarov from a bad angle.

Russia, however, got that goal back while fans at the Save-On-Food Memorial Center were still celebrating the WHL marker.

Dyakov was left all alone to bury a rebound pass Brossoit, who made way in favour of Eric Comrie midway through the period. The goal came 28 second after Rattie’s bank shot.

“It was tough, they were tight defensively and Makarov played well,” said Rattie. “It was a good, fast-paced game. I think we didn’t get the bounces. They scored two goals off us and the other one was an empty-net goal. If those go the other way, it’s a different game.”

Khokhlachev rounded out the scoring in the period as the WHL left Comrie hanging out to dry. Nail Yakupov created a turnover in the WHL end, which eventually found its way to a wide open Khokhlachev in front.

Adam Lowry pulled one back for the WHL in the third, converting a Colin Smith centring pass on the power play.

However, that’s as close as the WHL would get as Kosov added an empty-netter with just under 90 seconds left.

“It’s tough, we knew what we had to do in order to win the series and we came up short,” Lowry said. “We were able to play physical on them and we were able to wear them down (Wednesday), and (Thursday) was a different story, we weren’t able to finish as many checks as we could have. We allowed them to control the puck and that was the difference.”

Offensively Russia looked the more polished team, which is understandable considering the length of time they’ve been together compared to the WHL squad.

“They had pretty strong goaltending the last couple of games and their defence did a good job of clearing pucks,” Lowry said. “They were able to limit their turnovers and we weren’t able to get much quick-strike offence.”